Games perform poorly with dual core AMD?

Handruin

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I've noticed several of my games don't run correctly with my AMD 4600+ dual core. I usually have to go into task manager while the game is running and set affinity to one core on the process and then it runs correctly. Anyone else ever have this issue or know of a way around it? I just bought Supreme Commander and it has this issue and in some articles I've read, using more than one core actually helps, so I'm believing there is something wrong with my system because when I launch the game, it stutters like crazy until I set processor affinity.
 

Handruin

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I found some threads and the AMD dual core optimizer software fixed it for me and helped tremendously with the gaming performance. A thread over at hardocp was very helpful.
 

MaxBurn

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Thats damn weird. You have to find this utility besides the chipset drivers? Hearing details like this really puts me off.
 

Handruin

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If you read the link I sent, it's not a one size fits all. Some games aren't fixed by this software and other things have to be done... I've dealt with this with other games by setting the affinity but when I read supreme commander benefits from multi-core, I had to find a better solution. Now that I have, it absolutely runs a ton better! One part of the map (before the fix) the best I could do was 1024x768 with every detail set to low because the performance was so bad. Now with the fix, I can run everything high at 1600x1200 which is a dramatic difference.
 

ddrueding

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I'm loving the new racing game GRID, as it can keep my quad core at 75-85% full at all times, and suck up 1.5GB of RAM on it's own. It's good that games can take advantage of modern hardware.
 

MaxBurn

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If you read the link I sent, it's not a one size fits all. Some games aren't fixed by this software and other things have to be done... I've dealt with this with other games by setting the affinity but when I read supreme commander benefits from multi-core, I had to find a better solution. Now that I have, it absolutely runs a ton better! One part of the map (before the fix) the best I could do was 1024x768 with every detail set to low because the performance was so bad. Now with the fix, I can run everything high at 1600x1200 which is a dramatic difference.


Thats my point, whats wrong with the platform drivers that you have to research and find a fix for your situation? The fix should be update related drivers, not find utilities patches or manual fixes.
 

sechs

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Because the problem is the applications, not the the drivers. The work-around is use a utility.
 

Handruin

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What does Intel do differently where this does not affect them for the same game?
 

Handruin

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OK, I'll respect that as a possibility but that means something is different in hardware between the two x86 platforms when it comes to incompatibilities with multi-core? I'm not completely naive about that to think there wouldn't be differences, but the next question is...does Intel have any multi-core drivers/optimizers for similar issues? If not, does this imply all games are subsidized on Intel hardware (I doubt that to be true)?
 

Will Rickards

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If I remember correctly the only thing that utility did is fix the disconnect in an internal register between the two CPUs. Differences in the multi core architecture may cause the difference in the first place.
 

ddrueding

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I know a number of people who have worked at different game companies, most notably one whose initials are EA. He says his labs and development machine are all Intel with Intel boards (that is why it came up, we were talking about overclocking). I also knew a guy who worked at Intel performance testing games. I didn't know they did that, but it seems that they do (or at least did a few years ago).
 

sechs

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Basically, game developers are more than happy to develop to the hardware of whoever is willing to pay. When I was working at EA, everyone had AMD machines because AMD coughed up. For a while, the flavour of the month was nVidia graphics, then ATi.

These days, AMD is in the red and Intel has the cash. Guess who pays?
 
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